Editing your own website is easy. It is certainly possible to learn how to make changes on your website, it’s not something that only a hallowed few can do. You can learn how to do it – every web designer or developer there has started out that way. ‘How do I edit my website?’ is a question commonly asked on business forums.

Say you want to revamp the design of your website. Perhaps you’ve sat with the same design for a while and fancy a bit of a change up. So you change some of the colour palette for something with more zing, swap out for some funky fonts that caught your eye, and maybe move things around the page until you think it looks cool. In fact, the largest portion of your time is spent on indecision – does this look better or worse, should I try this instead? Any changes made are updated live, so we’re getting some instant payoff for our work.

But for a website that has regular visitors, a change in design can be very disruptive to their experience. Worse case scenario, they believe that they’ve stumbled upon the wrong website and ‘bounce’ off the page in search of familiarity – with another competitor they were considering. Whilst you’ve been playing with changes, you haven’t thought how your site visitors will react to these updates. In your eyes, they are visual improvements – what’s not to love? What experienced web designers are really good at is merging a brand with user experience. Yes, they want to make something that looks fantastic, but also something that works well. They’re aware of important stuff like customer journey and visitor behaviours, and have experience of looking beyond the aesthetics to create a functional site.

Function first

For a business website, its number one priority is that it has to work – and the function side is hidden away from view, in code. If the aim of the site is to be easily found on search engine results, that’s the focus for the build. If it’s to offer products for sale, then it has to be safe and secure and easy for the buyers to use. Design is art with a function – this applies to all aspects of design. Professionals working in these fields often learned art first then the process of making that artwork practical. Without it, we’re into the chocolate teapot situation where something looks very appealing but fails to do its job. Often this throws up a myriad of problems to solve too, another skill learned over time. 

If you are wanting to edit and update your own website, here are some ways that you can do so… without wasting precious resources:

• Write blogs. It’s simple to add a blog feature to your website, and they function much like any word processing software you have ever used. So if you can use Word to a basic level, you can publish blogs too. Blogs are much underrated, but remember that each blog acts like its own web page. Suppose you have some news update that you want to share? Stick it in a blog. An event coming up? Put it on the blog. This extra content is increasing the footprint of your website – more content for search engines to find. It will take merely minutes to add a new blog, whereas extra web pages take far longer for inexperienced web developers. 
• Stick to your template. If you’ve worked with a designer, chances are that the design is built around set order of design elements. Headings will all look one way, image treatments all look a particular way. Working like this means that new content follows the same ‘rules’ and will seamlessly blend new stuff with old. Since your template is likely to be built around your brand guidelines, this also means you are following your own rules too! Mismatching styles erodes any impact you might hope to achieve with your brand – take this stuff seriously, even if you’re doubtful of the credibility of this advice.
• Plan. If you are dreaming about a much bigger revamp, plan the job out first on paper. The ability to update-and-publish page content instantly is both a blessing and a cruise. Avoid the trap of losing your way with some screenshots of your old / existing design. Use your notes to edit the bits that you planned out – and nothing else! You also save the time that you might waste deliberating over visual choices.
• Work with what you have. Before you throw away your old design (that might have cost a fair bit) – understand how your visitors are using your website. Make informed choices about what you improve. How do they find your site? Where do visitors get lost? Why do they leave your website? These are questions you need answers for, as they will affect your design choices.
• Find an expert. Work with a designer to create this plan for your changes. This is ideal for a website which hasn’t been updated in a while, as you can formulate a schedule for gradual updates. Perhaps move on to divvy up the work between you, working together to the same aims. If the designer knows what you’re asking for help with – in this case, design-only no-build – often they can work to a pre-approved budget and you can avoid nasty surprises.

It can be expensive to employ the skills of a web designer, I don’t doubt. Websites are a business essential, and fortunately can be a one-off investment that might have a lifespan of up to three years. Small businesses often work to a shoestring budget when starting out, so learning to edit your own site can save hundreds of bucks. This initial cost might be what leads us to fear the same costs for any future changes.

Yet cost isn’t the only resource – don’t forget your time is an investment too. Is this a good use of your time? View that investment as an asset, not an expense.